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21 March 2011

'The Sugar Glider' (by Rod Nielsen) is an exciting adventure book set in Australia.

In this story, a pilot called Don comes back to that country in order to spend more time with his daughter and see his ex-wife.

However, when he arrives, Paul, a friend, offers him a suspicious job: to fly a mysterious cargo from Brisbane to Melbourne. But the plane has a defect and crashes, killing Paul. After that, they will have to fight to survive in the hottest part of Australia. Don discovers that it wasn’t an accident and what they really were carrying was Uranium. So he starts to think that this was not a job for the Government and tries to return to Brisbane, where he finally meets his ex-wife and her new lover, who is a selfish and wealthy businessman.

The main characters are:

Don Radcliffe: a pilot who returns to Brisbane hoping to rescue a failed marriage and to spend more time with his daughter Sylvia.

Don’s ex-wife, now in love with P. Forsha. She still seems to feel something for Don.

Judy Radcliffe is don’s daughter, aged 14. She is very intelligent and brave, always willing to take risks.

Paul Copeman is one of Don’s oldest mates. He needs to fly “The Sugar Glider”to the Melbourne air museum.

Patrick Forsha is a rich and selfish businessman. He started a relationship with Sylvia 6 months ago. Don hates him.

This book develops themes like: greed, environmental awareness, the Murri people (native Australians that traditionally occupied most of modern-day Queensland) and family values.

I believe that this book is worth reading because it is impossible to put it down. I enjoyed it very much, although it is sometimes a bit predictable.

My favorite chapter in this book is Accident because it describes in a very moving way Paul‘s tragic death. It is curious the way the writer expresses the character’s feelings and makes his readers get so involved with their situations.

This story reminds me of a civil war (due to all those problems related to the Murri people who demonstrated against the government ), family love (because ,despite the disadvantages, Don and his daughter keep together loving each other) and the power of truth (when Forsha’s partner realizes he’s not the honest man he pretends to be in front of her).